In reply to mblommel :
No but I watched very closely. If I came across a bit harsh, it's that they had/have promise, but their marketing rubs me the wrong way. If I was running the place, I'd also offer a 4-wheel version, and let the market decide which they should be building, instead of saying "this is best and you will like it." And a 4-wheel version would allow them to reduce its track from being 8 inches wider than my full size F150!
A four wheel option may require them to meet certain pesky safety standards.
tuna55 said:Does anyone make moon discs for modern wheels? The Bolt would look sweet with a set.
Just spotted this comment - Moon was showing off Tesla discs at SEMA in 2019. I was informed that I was not allowed to put a set on our car which filled me with sadness.
Keith Tanner said:A four wheel option may require them to meet certain pesky safety standards.
Very true, for a moment my creative side got out of line. I'll sit down.
IMHO three-wheeled cars are stupid, it's not enough weight reduction to make up for losing a wheel. The only reason anybody makes one is to doge around crash/etc standards.
In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
With all the manufacturer safety requirements a 3 wheeler is about the only way to get a new ultra-lightweight vehicle nowadays. An ND Miata is probably the lightest regular car you can buy new and its 2300-ish right? Both the Aptera and the Vanderhall are somewhere around 1500. Not sure what the Slingshot is, but they dont offer an electric version either.
Wouldnt it be nice if there were another class for lightweight sportscars so we could buy a factory built turnkey Caterham?
mblommel said:In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
With all the manufacturer safety requirements a 3 wheeler is about the only way to get a new ultra-lightweight vehicle nowadays. An ND Miata is probably the lightest regular car you can buy new and its 2300-ish right? Both the Aptera and the Vanderhall are somewhere around 1500. Not sure what the Slingshot is, but they dont offer an electric version either.
Wouldnt it be nice if there were another class for lightweight sportscars so we could buy a factory built turnkey Caterham?
I agree that light weight is desirable and almost impossible to get these days. OTOH, 3 wheel handling dynamics are so terrible that it's worth having the extra 700 pounds.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:mblommel said:In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
With all the manufacturer safety requirements a 3 wheeler is about the only way to get a new ultra-lightweight vehicle nowadays. An ND Miata is probably the lightest regular car you can buy new and its 2300-ish right? Both the Aptera and the Vanderhall are somewhere around 1500. Not sure what the Slingshot is, but they dont offer an electric version either.
Wouldnt it be nice if there were another class for lightweight sportscars so we could buy a factory built turnkey Caterham?
I agree that light weight is desirable and almost impossible to get these days. OTOH, 3 wheel handling dynamics are so terrible that it's worth having the extra 700 pounds.
Agreed.
And when you can recover energy as you can with an EV, weight doesn't make as much of a difference in efficiency.
A manufacturer could easily make a turnkey factory Caterham now that was still pretty damn light. Has anyone made a DP-level ND build yet? That's Caterham level amenities and those are well under 2klbs in NA form.
But nobody will buy it.
mblommel said:In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
...Both the Aptera and the Vanderhall are somewhere around 1500.
Is it? That's really light. I can "maybe" see it for the smallest battery pack, but even then it seems light (for the Aptera, I'm not interested in the Vanderhall). Of course, they don't list any weight in their "tech" specs: https://312682bc-8be4-4026-8f40-a24e9348a51a.usrfiles.com/ugd/312682_8d281fc24b12485d9c26284d930a89e2.pdf
One of my current favorite new cars is a hybrid, but a battery heavy one.
They are building CUVs because that's where the market demand is these days. At least they aren't doing too many jellybean looking things like the bmw i3!
The Slingshot weighs (I think) 1780 lbs. There's a very odd, arbitrary number they also have to fit around for autocycle legality, which I only know because Polaris made their own I4 for it that doesn't have to confirm to all EPA regs because of that.
There is an EV Slingshot coming thanks to a partnership with Zero.
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:IMHO three-wheeled cars are stupid, it's not enough weight reduction to make up for losing a wheel. The only reason anybody makes one is to doge around crash/etc standards.
But they look cool. CHECKMATE
But legit tho, it SERIOUSLY depends, at least per some Indian Transportation documents I once found detailing their feasibility (that I'll only be able to link to outside of work). There are some advantages; Aptera didn't go 3-wheel just due to regs, having one less tire means less looking resistance and the delta shape is naturally more aerodynamic. A single-wheel forward trike can turn like none other like the Carver shows out of Denmark, but it just all depends.
GIRTHQUAKE said:But they look cool. CHECKMATE
That's the thing, it's completely subjective. The real question is, are there enough people who agree that the Aptera is awesome AND are willing to buy one. It's my subjective opinion that there are not, but I've been wrong plenty of times, so...
kb58 said:GIRTHQUAKE said:But they look cool. CHECKMATE
That's the thing, it's completely subjective. The real question is, are there enough people who agree that the Aptera is awesome AND are willing to buy one. It's my subjective opinion that there are not, but I've been wrong plenty of times, so...
I guess we'll start answering that with test drives- Apparently if COVID keeps going down they hope to have public test drives in summer starting in Ohio, which I'd get into line for. Of course, that's also saying they'll be able to hit their targeted costs; there's a lot going on with the Aptera tech-wise that both could make it cheap OR expensive, with like no middle ground.
You'll need to log in to post.
